1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system and method for transmitting information to a mobile terminal from an information source which transmitted information is transmitted by the mobile terminal to a database to fetch information associated with the transmitted information stored in the database for transmission back to the mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Advertisement media in publicly travelled places have the objective of obtaining the interest of a passerby. Typically, advertisements contain information which is directed to the consumer to obtain the consumers interest and further provide contact information, such as a telephone number or a fax number, where further information about the advertised goods or services may be obtained. Since the advent of IP networks (e.g., the internet), a uniform resource locator (URL) reference is also typically given in advertisements which enables the user to download information to a computer from an IP network about the advertisement to provide a more detailed consideration of the advertised goods or services.
Additionally, systems have been proposed in which the location of a user controls the accessing of an information source, such as a server based service. These systems may use a GPS receiver or a mobile telephone to provide the user""s location to a system to control accessing of the information source which is particular to the users location.
Location services and location based services are becoming more important in telecommunication networks. It is possible to localize and indicate the position of a mobile telephone used, for example, for emergency calls. Many existing and new telecommunications services will benefit from knowing the position of the terminal being used. The drawback in current and planned telecommunications networks is that it is not possible to determine the position of the terminal being used or in an idle state a accurately enough for all types of position dependent services in all circumstances. The achievable position determining accuracy is around 100 m within a cellular network and around 10 m with GPS. Not all mobile terminals will have GPS functionality.
Mobile terminals, which utilize cellular communications, are suitable for connecting a user to a website or other database to obtain information. The obtaining of information by a mobile terminal typically uses a linkage between a cellular telephone network to which the terminal subscribes and an IP network. However, the user of a mobile terminal, in order to access advertisement information or other sources of information, is required to write down from the advertisement the information for linking the mobile terminal to the website or other database, and use that information to connect the mobile terminal to an IP service provider to fetch information from the website or database. While it is possible to link an advertisement with a mobile terminal using cellular communications, such a cellular linkage has the disadvantage in highly crowded places, such as airports, of requiring substantial network capacity to link the advertisement to a large number of persons carrying mobile terminals which are passing by the advertisement.
Low power RF systems have been proposed, e.g. Bluetooth, for providing communications between a number of transceivers without or in a local area network by a short range radio link having a broadcast range of a few meters. Such systems will be commercially available in the near future and are designed to operate in open spectrum, e.g. 2.4 gigahertz.
Additionally, low power optical communication systems using an infrared carrier have been proposed which will provide a linkage between a number of transceivers over a short range. These systems will perform functions similar to Bluetooth.
The present invention is a communication system and a method of communication which provides connectivity between at least one information source which provides information, such as information relating to location based services, at least one mobile terminal and at least one database. With the invention, at least one position transceiver is disposed at a broadcast location and is coupled to the information source. The information source provides information to the position transceiver which is broadcast to the at least one mobile terminal.
The position transceiver overcomes the location problems of the prior art by indicating and transmitting its own very exact predefined position to at least one mobile terminal within range and which is able to receive this information. The at least one mobile terminal can then communicate this position to a network and servers connected to the network to access information, such as information related to or part of position dependent services offered to the user of the mobile terminal.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the position transceiver is connected to a network server by fixed telephone lines or wireless connections. This connectivity enables the network server to update the information which is broadcasted by the position transceiver.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the information which is broadcasted is changed using a keyboard of the position transceiver or a PC connected to the position transmitter. The position transmitter only accepts appropriately authenticated changes.
The position transceiver can broadcast information to the mobile terminal continuously or on request of the user of the mobile terminal or only when the position transceiver recognizes by any known mechanism that a mobile terminal or a mobile user of the mobile terminal is in the vicinity of the position transceiver.
The at least one position transceiver broadcasts information directed to the user of each mobile terminal to induce the user to communicate with the at least one database to retrieve information stored in each database over a network. The information broadcast by each position transceiver includes identification information which is related to and identifies the information source and which is transmitted by the mobile terminal over the network to the at least one database to address or identify the information in each database which is transmitted by the network back to the mobile terminal to enable the user thereof to use the retrieved information which is associated with the information source at the broadcast location. A display, which is part of each mobile terminal, enables the user to selectively review the information broadcast from a plurality of position transceivers and choose which information sources in each database from which the user wishes to obtain additional information associated with any of the identification information broadcast from the position transceivers. The broadcast information, may without limitation, be diverse types of information such as, but not limited to, advertising information and includes identification information relating to the source of the broadcast information.
Each mobile terminal is located within a broadcast area defined by the broadcast range of the at least one position transceiver located at a broadcast location. The at least one position transceiver preferably has a limited broadcast range so that the broadcast range is limited within the optical view of the users of the mobile terminals as they pass by the broadcast location.
Each mobile terminal is a multimode transceiver which operates in short range and cellular modes, and includes first and second transceivers. The first transceiver communicates with at least one position transceiver and receives broadcasts therefrom which preferably are of limited range. While not limited thereto, the first transceiver may use a low power optical or RF broadcast communications to connect each position transceiver at the broadcast location to the first transceiver and the information source. A network communicates with the second transceiver which may be, without limitation, a cellular network connected to an IP network. Each database communicates with the network and stores information which is transmitted to the second transceiver of each mobile terminal associated with the identification information.
In a preferred operational mode of the present invention, the user of the mobile terminal passes within the broadcast area of at least one position transceiver disposed at a broadcast location. Each position transceiver either continually broadcasts information to the broadcast area, which permits each user of a mobile terminal to view with a display which is part of the mobile terminal information received by the first transceiver thereof which is being broadcast to the user, such as advertisement information and the identification information, which is used to fetch the information stored in each database by transmission from the second transceiver by the network to each database or broadcasts upon demand of the user of the mobile terminal to the mobile terminal.
Each mobile terminal includes a processor and associated memory. The associated memory stores the information received from each position transceiver by the first transceiver permitting the user of the mobile terminal at the time of reception or at a later time to utilize the second transceiver to connect to addressable areas in each database using the identification information transmitted to the first transceiver.
The identification information which is used to retrieve information for transmission to the second transceiver may be of many different types. For example, the identification information may be a function of a geographic position of the broadcast location at which each information transceiver is located and may comprise one or more of geographical coordinates, the elevation of the broadcast location, an address of the broadcast location, including street address, or a pointer, or a uniform resource locator, which is an address or provides an identification of the information stored in the database associated with the identification information. While the invention is not limited thereto, the network in a preferred embodiment includes a cellular telephone network which is connected to an IP network which facilitates transmission by the transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP).
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the broadcast location includes a plurality of information sources and a plurality of position transceivers disposed at the broadcast location respectively coupled to a different one of the plurality of information sources. Each position transceiver broadcasts information including identification information relating to one of the information sources from the broadcast location. The broadcast location includes a display which displays information relating to the information which is broadcast including the identification information broadcasted by each of the plurality of position transceivers. Each database stores information which is transmitted to the second transceiver associated with the identification information of the plurality of position transceivers in response to each database receiving at least the identification information by transmission by the network from the mobile terminal to each database.
A billboard type display may be utilized to display advertisement information or other information from a plurality of information sources which are viewed from a public place, such as an airport, through which multiple users of mobile terminals pass to attract their attention in a classic advertising manner. The billboard may continuously broadcast via the plurality of position transceivers over a limited range (low power) RF or optical transmission medium information which is directed to the passersby with mobile terminals from each of the information sources. An activation switch may be associated with each of the information sources to permit the passers by to selectively activate the position transceiver associated with the information source to which the passerby is attracted by display of information on the billboard type display. Finally, the broadcast may be activated by detecting the presence of the passersby by a known mechanism, such as a motion detector, to activate the position transceivers to broadcast the information.
There are numerous applications for the position transceiver besides transmitting advertisement information. These additional applications are: emergency calls; navigational services in which the user of the mobile terminal is provided information how to travel from point A to point B; calibration of the location of the mobile terminal in a cellular network and calibration of the cellular network to determine location of mobile terminals; location based services, e.g. printing a document at the closest available printer; informing the user of the mobile terminal of special services available only at the broadcast location of the position transmitters, such as special telecommunications services; transmission of price information about goods and services and payment information, the user of the mobile terminal in response thereto sends the requested payment as a short message service (SMS) to a network server, and the position transceiver in response thereto receives payment acknowledgment from the network server receiving the payment and transmits the payment acknowledgment to the user of the mobile terminal and provides a transmission permitting the user of the mobile terminal to have access to the purchased goods or services.
A method of transmitting data in a communications system including an information source, a position transceiver coupled to the information source and disposed at a broadcast location, a mobile terminal within a broadcast area, the mobile terminal comprising first and second transceivers with the first transceiver communicating with the position transceiver, a network communicating with the second transceiver and at least one database, communicating with the network and storing information associated with the identification information includes broadcasting information including identification information relating to the information source with the position transceiver to the first transceiver within the broadcast area; transmitting at least the identification information from the second transceiver with the network to the database; and in response to the database receiving at least the identification information, transmitting from the database the stored information associated with the identification information to the second transceiver. The identification information comprises information which is a function of a geographic position of the broadcast location which may be one or more of geographical coordinates, elevation of the broadcast location, an address of the broadcast location, which may be a street address, and further, a location within the street address, or a pointer, or a uniform resource locator which is an address of or identifies the information associated with the identification information in the database.
In a preferred embodiment of the method, the broadcast location comprises a plurality of information sources; a plurality of position transceivers disposed at the broadcast location respectively coupled to a different one of the plurality of information sources, each position transceiver broadcasting information including identification information relating to one of the information sources from the broadcast location; and a display which displays information relating to the information broadcasted by each of the plurality of position transceivers. Information which is stored in the database is transmitted to the second transceiver associated with the identification information of the plurality of position transceivers in response to the database receiving at least the identification information by transmission by the network from the second transceiver of the mobile terminal to the database. The information which is broadcasted from each of the plurality of position transceivers may include a webpage or application software which is executed by a processor in the mobile terminal which controls the first and second transceivers. The application software may comprise without limitation a program for opening a window or a web browser for searching the information stored in the database identified by the identification information.
The broadcasted information may be encrypted. The position information transmitted from the second transceiver to the database may be signed by the user of the mobile terminal of when the information was transmitted from the information transceiver to the mobile terminal to indicate the user""s current location to permit database verification that the user is where the user should be; and the database checks validity of the signature, decrypts the information which is received from the network and checks validity of the time stamp and if the time stamp and signature are valid, the database transmits the stored information associated with the identification information with the network to the second transceiver.
The plurality of position transceivers of the broadcast location may cease to broadcast the information when the plurality of information transceivers are moved. A device may be provided at the broadcast location which senses when the plurality of position transceivers are moved and which disables transmission of the information when movement is sensed. The device for sensing movement may be of diverse designs and may be a mechanical connection between the information transceivers and a physical location at which the information transceivers are located which, when opened, disables their normal function, e.g. by disconnecting electrical power. As an alternative, the position transceiver can start transmitting an error indication if the position transceiver is moved.
In a preferred embodiment of the method, each position transceiver broadcasts the information with a limited range RF carrier or a limited range infrared carrier and the network comprises a cellular telephone network and an IP network.